r/Ornithology • u/1SmartBlueJay • 1d ago
Discussion Black-Capped Chickadee eats a Dark-Eyed Junco.
Filmed this in my front yard at the bird feeders. I know some people can be sensitive to dead birds, but I thought it was too cool not to share!! Also marked this as a discussion, since it might provoke some questions/comments. Winter is a hard season!
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u/FatherSky 1d ago
Very cool example of opportunistic omnivore behavior
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u/ThePerfumeCollector 1d ago
Don’t they normally eat bugs etc?
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u/FatherSky 1d ago
Yes they do. I shouldn't have framed my comment to sound like they aren't always omnivores. This is definitely opportunistic in the sense that carrion is not a regular part of their diet unless the right opportunity presents itself.
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u/paintedsaint 1d ago
I threw the bone from our Christmas ham out in the yard for the squirrels to gnaw on and it had a bit of leftover meat around it. The sparrows and chickadees are going nuts for it!
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u/Snoot_Boot 1d ago
Flashbacks to the video of a cow eating a live chicken
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u/a_lonely_trash_bag 1d ago
For me, it's the video of a deer eating a baby bird while the parents try to protect it.
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u/PsychologicalLowe 19h ago
Deer have eaten birds that are trapped in mist nets set by banders in order to catch them to weigh, band, and collect data. That’s why they have to check the nets often to prevent deer and predatory birds from eating the captives.
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u/kelsobjammin 1d ago
I saw a crow hunt and peck to death a mouse. Shocked the shit out of me
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u/No-Guarantee-6249 1d ago
On the farm cutting hay exposing mice, seagulls would catch them and swallow them whole!
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u/Snoot_Boot 1d ago
..... For fun?
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u/kelsobjammin 1d ago
Straight up eating it… ᴖ̈
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u/Snoot_Boot 1d ago
Oh, well i mean that's fine. I've seen a hawk chewin up up a field mouse, sorta similar. Crows are already omnivores
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u/ChefLabecaque 16h ago
A lot of birds and squirrels are reported this year to be opportunistic omnivore! And not all because of snow...
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u/pigeoncote 1d ago
Oh this is really cool to see! I’ve seen videos of Great Tits in Europe hunting and eating other birds, but never BCCH. Was the junco already deceased or did the BCCH kill it? It looks like it was already dead but I know snowmelt can make corpses look older than they are.
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u/1SmartBlueJay 1d ago
Agreed! Never seen it before! Junco was dead- sitting there for days. No maggots or anything in it either. Mr. Chickadee was just munching on the flesh.
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u/No-Gene5360 1d ago
I suppose it’s not that surprising then. Many animals, even ones that are either mot predatory at all, or are predatory, but only take small bodied prey such as insects, have been known to opportunistically eat carrion from larger bodied animals. We don’t typically think of insectivores as being predators but at the end of the day, an animal that is adapted to eating insects often will have the adaptations to digest animal protein from larger animals as well. And Winter means fewer food, so this chickadee saw an opportunity to get some much needed protein.
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u/rubymiggins 1d ago
We have dogs, and after the dogs are done with their beef bones, we put them out for the chickadees. They love pecking at them for bits.
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u/FirstChAoS 1d ago
I saw pics online once of chickadees and woodpeckers picking at a deer carcass so I assume they will scavenge. I have seen blue jays scavenge too but they are not very good at it.
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u/BarkleEngine 1d ago
Surprising as I have seen a bluejay go aggressively at a cat wounded chipmunk who was thinking he was safe having escaped into a tree. Grabbed him and killed him very quickly.
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u/didyouwoof 1d ago
I’ve seen a scrub jay kill a dove nestling that had fallen from the nest. (It might have helped if the nest were more than two or three sticks balanced on a tree branch.)
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u/LordCharizard98 1d ago
This is random but did any of you know that great blue Herons eat baby alligators I never knew that till I saw a picture of one that this old photographer showed me.
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u/rubymiggins 1d ago
I saw a great blue heron eat a baby muskrat one time. I think if it's small enough, it's edible.
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u/NorthEndD 1d ago
It is a dangerous world for baby alligators and also medium sized ones. They only hang out in big groups without eating each other if the food is plentiful like at the zoo.
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u/LordCharizard98 1d ago
Never knew that man it makes sense why there isn't an overrun amount of adult alligators everywhere.
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u/maisiecooper 1d ago
I didn’t know that but I’m not surprised. I’ve see GBHs hunt and eat chipmunks and northern water snakes. They are fierce predators!
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u/Cold-Introduction-54 1d ago
Great blue maw. Purportedly eaten all the ducklings & killed & devoured the mother as it attempted to defend. Video posted here a while back. Herons don't play.
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u/Scuttling-Claws 1d ago
I've kinda accepted that herbivory is more about lack of opportunities then anything else
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u/sooperedd 1d ago
Did you ask the Chickadee if it tastes like chicken?
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u/1SmartBlueJay 1d ago
Haha! Not sure how junco tastes… I know how Robin does though. Once one hit our window and died (yes I know keeping their feathers is illegal, but idk about eating them). I didn’t want it to go to waste so I just cooked the breast/neck meat like a chicken, in a pan. With spices, salt, and pepper. Tasted great, honestly. Similar texture to steak, but very very sweet and quite tender.
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u/inkydragon27 1d ago
Chickadees will nibble at the fat and meat I leave for the ravens, I guess a junco is just a very big mealworm.
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u/NewlyNerfed 1d ago
Fascinating. These two species are always at odds with each other at my feeders.
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u/cutebucket 1d ago
Good example of how just about everything is an omnivore when presented with an easy opportunity.
I can't help but have a bit of a morbid laugh about it, as the Juncos are dominant over the Chickadees at my feeders. This one is getting revenge! XD
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u/Woodbear05 1d ago
If you want to be wary of viewers getting grossed out or disturbed by your post, i think you can put the nsfw tag on it to let people know it might be disturbing to some audiences.
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u/ThePerfumeCollector 1d ago
This video definitely has a dark feel to it but I am glad to observe something that doesn’t happen every day. Nature is nature whether it looks pretty or not. Thanks for sharing
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u/iggygrey 1d ago
When it gets c-c-c-cold, everything has a cache of nice, plump holly berries inside.
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u/Physical_Buy_9489 1d ago
Can maggots hatch and grow in snow? I bet the chickadee loves maggots.
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u/1SmartBlueJay 1d ago
I’m not sure… but I’d definitely think they’d eat maggots. But this fella was eating the flesh of the junco, there are little chickadee nibbles all over it! 😳
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u/No-Guarantee-6249 1d ago
Not surprising especially in the winter. Our chickadees are all over our suet feeder which is basically beef suet. Very fatty! Also bush tits, dark eyed juncos etc.
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u/HorzaDonwraith 1d ago
Deer do the same thing and this act has even led to human corpses being discovered.
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u/WildLandLover 1d ago
We saw Uinta chipmunks eating their dead by the side of a country road. It was spring, so we thought they were taking advantage of the roadkill for protein after a long, hard winter.
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u/overdoing_it 1d ago
Closest I've seen is when the baby goldfinches were out last summer, they're pretty dumb and fearless at only a couple weeks old, and one landed on a feeder next to a grackle. The grackle pinned it down with its foot and ate it head first. By the time I realized what it was doing the goldfinch was already dead but I still shooed it away because of the blood getting everywhere.
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u/MrsClaire07 1d ago
They are Vicious little Dinos, and I love them because of AND in spite of that. 😎😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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u/ArachnomancerCarice 22h ago
They'll happily eat meat and fat from any dead animal in winter. Roadkill, remnants of deer hunts, fish and other birds. The same goes for most woodpeckers and nuthatches.
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u/aratsllew 21h ago
Survival is hard. That Junco obviously has nutrients that the chickadee needed. In winter nonetheless
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